There is only a heat wave in Barmer says Jaswant Singh, dismissing the Narendra Modi wave

Expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh on Friday ruled out the possibility of his rejoining the party even if it showed willingness to re-induct him. Asked during a meet-the-press event here if he would consider an invitation to rejoin the Bharatiya Janata Party if the party so intended, Jaswant Singh said, "I will not join the BJP."

The former external affairs minister, who had been earlier expelled from the party in August 2009 for praising Pakistan founder MA Jinnah and returned almost a year later, however, said he could support NDA on issues of "greater national good". "I didn't say I will not support, I said I will not join the NDA. My supporting (the NDA) will depend entirely on issues involved...and the questions posed in parliament. There will be occasions when I will support the NDA on issues certainly...there might arise an occasion...and if there is a Third Front which comes up or the Congress party and I find...greater national good, I will certainly support them," Singh in response to a question.

"BJP has not had, even in times of Vajpayee, a single man (leadership). Currently there is either one-man leadership or it is confined in a small coterie chosen by one personality. That is a choice which the BJP has made for itself," he said.

In his opening statement, Singh spoke of how these elections have brought the "level of political discourse to a low point", with glaring absence of ideas and issues. "It appears as if political parties have lost their moral compass. Rhetoric has replaced logic. Main issues that should have been discussed, like the state of the economy and the challenges faced by the country like its foreign policy, are being ignored."

Asked if it was Modi who had brought the level of political discourse to a low point, Singh said he wouldn't name individuals but that it was true that parties and politicians have reduced political discourse to an "LCM" when they should have been aiming for the "HCF".

For all that, reading between the lines, Jaswant Singh may do just the opposite if he wins in Barmer, and if his son Manvendra Singh MLA, "a victim of gross injustice and low vendetta", is reinstated in the party with "honour intact".

Dismissing any "Modi wave" anywhere, he said in Barmer there was only a "heat wave". And, yes, chief minister Vasundra Raje Scindia and BJP president Rajnath Singh had put everything that they had at their command to make him eat dust. They failed, said Singh.

"She had made it a matter of prestige, saying that it was question of Mooch Kat Jayegi. This was the first Maharani I've heard who has a moustache," said the clean-shaven Rajput, with a controlled laugh, very much like the lord of all he surveys.